The Ghan, running from Adelaide to Darwin, is our most luxurious train. Its forerunners were the Afghan camel drivers. In 1840, drivers and their animals were introduced to transport goods, even pianos and furniture, to settlements of the great dry inland. They were brought into the country from Afghanistan because their home country’s climate was as hot and dry as Australia's. The camel drivers’ nationality was shortened to ‘Ghan’ and the route has been called by this name ever since.

In 1860 24 camels were imported for the Burke and Wills expedition that was endeavouring to cross Australia from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. They reached the fringe of the Gulf in February 1861. However, Burke and Wills died on the way back south on the banks of Cooper Creek, just by a tree that has the word "dig" carved in its trunk. Provisions had been buried there for the explorers, but they failed to dig and died of malnutrition. This tree is now known as the Dig Tree and you can still read the inscription today.

The Ghan is a modern, fast passenger and freight train going all the way to Darwin. The section of the line from Alice Springs to Darwin is proving to be a great tourist attraction. The journey starts in Adelaide, South Australia. An important station midway on the route is Alice Springs, known as The Alice. It was named after Lady Alice Todd, the wife of Sir Charles Todd who was in charge of the building of the Overland Telegraph Line. The station at the northern end of the line is Darwin, named by the Captain of HMS Beagle in honor of Charles Darwin.

Just what has Australia got? Quite a lot actually. The visitor can indulge in the rich Australian culture - G'day mate! The largest island in the world, though for some reason it is not classed as an island, too big apparently. Wildlife sanctuaries, busy cities, dry mysterious deserts, tropical beaches, it is all here.

Sydney is a clean city with bright blue harbour water. Must sees are Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Enjoy surfing Bondi and Manly beaches in the hot sunshine.

Alice Spring in the hot center stands on it own. You can get a drink anywhere. It is a long drive but worth it. Two hundred miles away lies Ayers Rock (Uluru). Another ideal place to take a driving holiday. Darwin on the other hand is a busy place.

Melbourne is the go ahead city. Something new is always going on there. It has the country's leading museums covering science, history, culture and sport. Enjoy a coffee in one of the varied cafes.

Other places to visit are the other capital cities, not on the one vacation though. Adelaide has many old hotels where you can partake in a counter lunch. Queensland is a real holiday destination. Perth has it all being well away from the other Australian cities: water sport is the thing to do.

Are we becoming too accepting of drug use? When a business advises its customer that intensive drug tests are about to happen it makes one wonder. Is this taking customer service too far?

The flight crew on Jetstar, the Australian cut-price airline, told passengers to flush drugs down the toilet because there would be sniffer dogs and inspectors when they landed. Jetstar said it was just a joke. Passengers took it seriously and it is not known if some avoided arrest. There was a rush to the toilet after the announcement.

Apparently, this isn't the first time this has occurred. Jetstar admitted that such warnings are routine. This undermines its claim of a joke. Is their apology sufficient? Surely a change in company culture is needed.

Drug taking is a drain on the health system. Continuous use does damage the body despite what many users claim. Being blasé about it is certainly not the thing to do. Responses on Facebook were overwhelmingly supportive of the airline. However, many silly things are done by seemingly rational people.

Bees calculate how much energy they need to get pollen. To survive, bees must run on a "profit" basis. They must not use more energy in obtaining nectar than energy the nectar provides. Bees were given the choice of travelling along two pathways to get nectar. One pathway was 10 meters long, the other 20 meters. However, the "scenery" of the 10 meter pathway was designed to trick the bees into perceiving that it was the furthest distance away.

When the bees returned to their fellows in the nest they told them with a waggle dance which pathway to use to get more pollen. Despite the 10 meter pathway appearing to the bees to be further away they told other bees to go to the feeder in the 10 meter pathway. Somehow, they had worked out that it used up less energy to go to this feeder than the one on the other pathway.

It is believed that bees have "calorimeters" built into their brains. They do not judge energy expenditure solely based on distance travelled. A partly covered pathway would be given the okay over a pathway out in the weather for example.

Bees are smart little critters and we can learn a great deal from them.

Despite the perception of Australians being "outside" people, spending their leisure exploring the bush, we are a nation of "stay-at-homes". A quite startling statistic shows that most Australians travelled only 16 kilometers from their homes in a decade.

Australians are parochial - they like the town where they were born. Anyway, this finding of only 16 kilometers of travel is questionable. It would be very difficult indeed even in remote towns for people to move in such a small radius from their homes. Even doing the weekly shopping would entail travel of more than 20 kilometers.

I favor strengthening the "bushy' culture of Australia - whether it be true or not. In this day and age societies are so similar as to be boring. We all have mobile phones and widescreen TVs. Hell, even Asians living in the mountains have such technology. And Africans meandering along dusty roads hold mobile phones to their ears and tinker with the Internet.

Bees calculate how much energy they need to get pollen. To survive, bees must run on a "profit" basis. They must not use more energy in obtaining nectar than energy the nectar provides. Bees were given the choice of travelling along two pathways to get nectar. One pathway was 10 meters long, the other 20 meters. However, the "scenery" of the 10 meter pathway was designed to trick the bees into perceiving that it was the furthest distance away.

When the bees returned to their fellows in the nest they told them with a waggle dance which pathway to use to get more pollen. Despite the 10 meter pathway appearing to the bees to be further away they told other bees to go to the feeder in the 10 meter pathway. Somehow, they had worked out that it used up less energy to go to this feeder than the one on the other pathway.

It is believed that bees have "calorimeters" built into their brains. They do not judge energy expenditure solely based on distance travelled. A partly covered pathway would be given the okay over a pathway out in the weather for example.

Bees are smart little critters and we can learn a great deal from them.